Been losing fat while trying to maintain muscle. I am aware that past a beginner point of muscle gain, if in a deficit of calories gaining muscle is pretty rough to do. I time my pre-post nurtrion good, i know my diet its topnotch. Plenty of protein, good carbs and good fat. My workout routine is 5-6 days a week cardio and 3 full body days. I have just switch up from a upper/lower spilt. So going back to full body just to get a little different workout going on and to really focus on compound movements. so here is my question and see if some of you ladies know what I am talking about and can help me out.

Some of my gains/maintaining have been great (biceps, quads, shoulders and back) Others not so much. Here is a sample of my full body routine. This is for maintaining and trying to get a little strength.

Sometimes I throw in a little something different for the isolates (declined crunch, weighted twists, preacher curls that kind of thing)

So my porblem is that i am losing some body fat which is great (down from 25 to 19) but instead of my muscles being more defined in my abs,glutes and triceps, I have got that "fat skinny" look going on. Its just mush really. No definiton, when i flex i have to search the muscles out. I don't even have to flex my biceps to feel it. So I know that I am doing something right to have gained and maintain certain muscle groups. So what could be the problem here you think? Undertraining those area/overtraining. Just not sure. I was planning on bulking when i hit 16% and then cutting back down again. I would like to still do that. And I know you can't spot reduce, and if i wasn't makeing gains in others areas I would assume I was just having a hard time gaining due to the deficit. Which isn't an extreme one I go from 1800-2100 to lose the fat slower why having something left for my muscle. Anyway any ideas or pointers ladies?

HighVelocity

07-04-2006, 01:16 PM

mybestgirl-

Congratulations on you weight loss:)! It sounds like you've made some great progress!!

As for bringing out abs, glutes and tri's...First, you need to be patient! Unfortunately, I'm at 18% and I can finally see a 2 pack, and....... in the right light, a 4 pack LOL!!! And in order to lose more body fat, it is mostly diet and cardio. Although, you could also try adding weight to your ab exercises to help develop the muscles more, and make them "POP" :D.

Next, depending on how long you have been doing your current routine, your body may have grown accustomed to it. If that is the case you need to really shake things up, why not try increasing the weight you lift to a point where you can only do 4-6 reps? I usually try and switch things up every 6 weeks or so.

I hope some of that helped, good luck!!

mybestgirl

07-04-2006, 02:18 PM

okay so should i also increase the sets then as well like do a 5x4/6 kind of thing since I am decreasing my reps?

I will indeed be patient, I just guess I wanted to make sure i wasn't training wrong more so overtraining those areas being my abs,tris and glutes is where i haven't made any real strength gains/muscle def. However I will try this, appreciate your advice:)

HighVelocity

07-05-2006, 10:00 AM

Sounds like a good plan, give it a try for a couple of weeks and then you can decide if it is starting to work or not. There are tons of variations you could make, you might want to check out the journals and the training section for ideas! You could change up exercises, switch the order you do exercises in, superset, pyramid, use a 3, 4, or 5 day split to really hit just a few areas hard...lots of things you could try.

You might also want to workout your weakest body parts first, when you are freshest and have the most energy to really hit them HARD :)